DAN AUSTIN

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Dan Austin joined Van Dyke•Horn as a senior account executive in 2016 after serving as Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s deputy communications director and a 12-year career in journalism. His past roles in communications have provided him with extensive relationships with top officials in the media, and business and civic communities.

As the number two communications director for the City of Detroit, Dan coordinated city strategy and media relations across all departments, using his expertise on how best to pitch a story and to whom it should be pitched, as well as how to play the news on social media and other platforms.

Over 10 years at the Detroit Free Press, Dan rose through the ranks to become a member of the paper’s revered Editorial Board. As an editor there, he polished copy on everything from Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative pieces to Pulitzer Prize-winning opinion columns.

Dan also is considered an expert on Detroit history, having written two books, Lost Detroit and Forgotten Landmarks of Detroit, that have sold a combined 35,000 copies, as well as running HistoricDetroit.org, an online architectural resource with more than 40,000 followers on social media.

Dan is a proud Detroit resident and is a graduate of Michigan State University, where he attended James Madison College.